Following the Nov. 21 blackout of NBCUniversal channels on Fubo, the two sides have traded barbs about their inability to reach a new carriage deal.
The channels were dropped from Fubo on Friday Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. ET.
Key sticking points are carriage and retransmission fees, flexibility in crafting skinny bundles and the ability to sell subscriptions to NBCU's Peacock streaming service in the Fubo app store.
In a statement, NBCU said: “Fubo has chosen to drop NBCUniversal programming despite being offered the same terms agreed to by hundreds of other distributors. Unfortunately, this is par for the course for Fubo — they’ve dropped numerous networks in recent years at the expense of their customers, who continue to lose content.”
When the blackout began, Fubo accused NBCU of demanding “terms regarding pricing and packaging that are egregiously above those offered to other distributors. There is no basis for this discrimination and, as a result, Fubo subscribers would either be denied important content or be forced to pay what we believe to be exorbitant costs.”
On Tuesday, Nov. 25, Fubo, now owned by Disney, issued a more detailed statement on the dispute that noted “NBCU is spinning off some of their cable networks into a new company called Versant on Jan. 1. Despite them not being worth the cost to Fubo subscribers, Fubo offered to distribute Versant channels for one year. NBCU wants Fubo to sign a multiyear deal—well past the time the Versant channels will be owned by a separate company. NBCU wants Fubo subscribers to subsidize these channels.”
Fubo also complained that the programmer was blocking its efforts to offer consumers skinny, less costly bundles. “Earlier this year, Fubo launched Fubo Sports, a cost-effective sports-focused service. NBCU wants Fubo to add expensive nonsports channels, which will drive up the price paid by Fubo subscribers.”
In addition, the vMVPD alleged: ”NBCU is discriminating against Fubo and our subscribers. They allowed YouTube TV and Amazon Prime Video to integrate Peacock directly into their channel store, but refused to give Fubo the same rights. Fubo’s goal is to make Peacock available directly in our channel store so subscribers can access all of their content in one place and seamlessly pay on one bill.“
